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On Trust in God.

215

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," &c. is the first commandment both in place and in importance, since all our actions which do not proceed from love to him are nothing worth. Such a man has probably repeated this commandment from his youth up, but he has never proved his entire and grateful obedience to its spirit, by that communion with his God, which a true Christian considers his best privilege. When difficulties beset him, he does not habitually seek in prayer the aid of him," who comforteth us in all our tribulations *." When grief oppresses him, his thoughts do not fly to that comforter, who has said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest +."

The idea of leaving this world must be, in some degree, familiar to the mind of him whose constant practice it is thus to commune with his God. He cannot be one of those who "through fear of death, are all their life time subject to bondaget. The moment which is to separate the soul from the body, must be, and ought to be, a subject of the most serious reflection to every human being. The unsupported mind must shrink from the thought of it; but he who hourly seeks the aid of that Saviour "who ever liveth to make intercession $" for all who call upon him in faith, will be enabled to look forward to it, without dismay, and when the awful moment comes, to say with humble confidence, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, thy rod, and thy staff comfort me ."

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VERITAS.

Heb. ii. 15.

|| Psalm xxiii. 4.

MAKING A FIRE.

IF

SIR,

If you do not think your readers are perfect in the art of making a fire, you may insert the following directions in the Visitor. I will give reasons for all my rules.

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RULE I. Clear the grate of all the ashes and of the cinders, except a few.

REASON. By this there will be a free current of air from below, and the few cinders left in the grate will prevent the wood lying flat upon the bars and preventing such current.

RULE II. Having cleared the grate as directed by Rule I. put in wood. If the wood is shaped and prepared as in London, it should not be laid with any regularity and if only a small quantity is used, it should be laid together, and not scattered over the whole grate.

:

REASON. By laying the wood irregularly, the air will circulate freely through it; by laying it together, a greater heat is applied to one part than if it were scattered; and if one part is lighted it is sufficient.

RULE III. Over the wood lay round cinders, (not ashes) and then throw on some coals, not too small.

REASON. I direct cinders to be put upon the wood, and not coals; because coals, when first lighted, emit a considerable quantity of tar, or liquid, which cakes the coals: this cake excludes the air; and the fire from the wood, if there is not much of it, is soon extinguished. Cinders do not emit this liquid, and are sooner lighted than coal.

There is a great difference in coals: the best are casily set fire to, and require very little wood.

Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb.

217

Others require much more: consequently it depends upon the coal, and in some measure upon the grate, what quantity of wood is necessary.

N. C. T.

INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

LETTER THE FIFTH.

MY GOOD FRIEND,

I HOPE you will not have found it very difficult to make your child understand the signs for yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow, which I gave you in my last letter, and that you have kept him in the practice of these signs, as well as of many others, which I dare say he has got perfect by this time. If you think he has not quite understood these last signs, you should try different ways, to be quite sure about it. And, besides telling him about those things which he knows did happen yesterday, and will happen to-morrow, try to make him sensible also, of what did not happen. Suppose for instance you tell him, We did not go to Church yesterday— make the sign for Church, and the sign for yesterday, then shake your head as much as to say, no, not yesterday, we did not go to Church yesterday, it was not Sunday. Then ask him by signs, do we go to Church to-day? and shake your head again, as much as to say, no, not to-day, shewing him, by signs, we work to-day, we do not go to Church. Then tell him, we shall go to Church to-morrow, tomorrow is Sunday, making the sign of Church, the sign of to-morrow, and the sign of Yes, nodding your head. I have thought of this particular instance, of going to Church, because it is a thing that happens so regularly, (at least I hope your example has taught him that it does); but there are a great many other things that happen, which you may make use of in the same way, and which I believe you have now had practice enough in this way of teaching, to think of for yourself.

Let us go on now to some more words. I hope that, by this time, your child is beginning to write down the names of a great many things upon his slate. Suppose then we try to teach him something more about all these things, than just to know their names. Let us tell him about their different sorts, their size, their shape, their colour, their weight, and so on.

The following list is to shew you what I mean.

A good Boy.

A tall Man.
An old Woman.
A naughty Girl.
A Black Horse.
A little Lamb.
A high Tower.
A green Tree.
A low Chair.
A round Stool.
A square Table.

A red Lip.

You will not find it

A long Nose.
A white Apron.
A clean Frock.
A dirty Face.
A light Feather.
A heavy Box.
A soft Pillow.
A hard Board.
A blue Ribbon.
A large Dog.
Sweet Sugar.
Sour Vinegar.

difficult to think of signs, for the words I have now given you, and for a great many more of the same sort.

The sign for a will be holding up the fore finger of the right hand.

The sign for good may be patting or stroking the breast, while you look pleased and satisfied.

The sign for old, imitating the walk and look of an old person.

The sign for naughty. A look of displeasure, and seeming to put away something from you.

The sign for round, moving your hand or finger so as to shew a round shape.

The sign for square, shewing a square shape by moving your finger so as to make a square shape, or putting your hands opposite to each other two different ways, so as to shew a thing with four sides. The sign for clean, looking pleased, as you did

Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb.

219

for good, and as you stroke the breast, taking hold of some part of your dress, as much as to say, how nice it looks. The sign for dirty, looking displeased as you did for bad, and taking hold of your dress to seem to throw it from you.

The sign soft, pressing your cheek with the point of your forefinger, to shew how easily it gives way. In order to teach your child the names of the different colours, you should get, if you can, some patterns of cloth, which any taylor would supply you with or bits of ribbon, or silk, of different colours, would answer the same purpose; and teach him to write the words black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, pink, purple, grey, brown, scarlet, when you touch the cloth or silk of these different colours. Flowers of different colours will assist you in fixing in his mind the names of the colours; and he will be pleased to write on his slate, a blue flower, a red flower, a yellow flower, a green leaf. Besides this you will often shew him objects of different colours, and make him write the names of these objects with the names of the colours; for instance a black hat, a grey cloak, a red cloak; a white apron; a blue apron; green grass; blue sky, &c. Next to colours I should wish you to teach your child the meaning of the words, and also of the figures, that stand for numbers; and, for this purpose, I think you will find the round dots which I have sent you at the end of my letter to be very useful to you.

You must try to make him understand, that every single thing is called one thing, one boy, one girl, one plate, one fork, and so on, holding up the thumb of the right hand for the sign of one, then shew him that the one dot, the word one, and the figure 1, all mean the same thing; holding up your thumb for every one of them, and making him spell the word one, with his fingers. Then do the

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